When Carrie Underwood does a great song (and for this staged country music superstar, they’re all great songs), she bends slightly at the waist, tilting her upper body toward the ground, while reaching her left arm behind her like albeit to stabilize.
The pose creates dramatic imagery, as the former “American Idol” winner certainly understands. But given how loud he sings, it could also be a physical necessity: Headlining the Stagecoach country festival on Saturday night, Underwood sent his voice booming through the expanse of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, Calif., with such intensity you could see the veins coming out of his forehead.
And that was before Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose showed up for a surprise cameo that literalized the hair-metal heritage in Underwood’s music, leading the 39-year-old to pronounce Saturday “the best night of my life.” “.
Paired with Underwood’s shimmering wardrobe, including a dazzling GNR romper she wore in honor of her special guest, the singer’s vocal athleticism marks her as a clear successor to the larger-than-life pop-country divas of the decade. 1990s and early. 2000s But if she’s not alone in her millennial admiration for Faith Hill and Shania Twain, she’s perhaps the only Nashville star on her level who maintains her once-dominant aesthetic. (Consider Twain, who headlined Stagecoach in 2017, recently returned to the desert not for Stagecoach but for Coachella, where she appeared with Harry Styles.)
For the young women emerging in country music today, Underwood’s generational companion and one-time duet partner Miranda Lambert wields a much stronger influence: a skilled songwriter with a freer, more spontaneous attitude, Lambert is the that you can hear and see in Lainey Wilson and Hailey Whitters and Morgan Wade. Like other genres in the age of social media, country has moved away from pageantry toward relativity; even the discourse surrounding Dolly Parton, a figure no less crucial to Lambert than to Underwood, has shifted to emphasize Parton’s wit and self-determination over her dazzling showmanship.
All of which leaves Underwood in an interesting position as he gears up for the release of his first major studio album (not counting a Christmas record and gospel single) since 2018’s “Cry Pretty.” The new LP, due out in June , is titled “Denim & Rhinestones,” which speaks volumes about Underwood’s faith in his approach.
On Saturday, introducing the album’s title track, a brilliant ’80s retro bop with echoes of Whitney Houston and Fleetwood Mac, he pointed to his flashy outfit and told the crowd: “I practice what I preach, people.”
Carrie Underwood performs at Stagecoach on Saturday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“ghost storythe LP’s sweeping lead single, hasn’t immediately taken off on country radio (although it is a very Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper-esque duet with Jason Aldean, “if I didn’t love you”, topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart last year). However, Underwood, who has a popular residency at Resorts World in Las Vegas, could still draw tens of thousands of people to his set at Stagecoach, where the weekend’s lineup also featured Thomas Rhett, Brothers Osborne, Luke Combs , Margo Price and Maren Morris.
What has allowed Underwood to continue to connect even as country music changes around him (beyond the simple sporting pleasure of listening to someone hit a high note and then holding it for years) is the difficult balance he strikes between seriousness and camp. . Apparently half of Underwood’s songs represent pulpy revenge fantasies against bad men, and here she made hay with melodrama in “church bells” Y “flown“and the immortal”Before I cheat on youwhile somehow honoring the emotional weight of the real-life struggles women face as her characters.
He found the pathos in the hackneyed clichés of “Cry Pretty,” which featured real fireworks alongside metaphorical ones. And he combined “Jesus, Take the Wheel” (a bumper sticker in search of a song) with a bit of the Christian hymn “How Great Thou Art” to surprisingly moving effect. A chorus accompanied the singer at the time, then stayed on for “See You Again,” which Underwood dedicated to Naomi Judd, whose death was announced Saturday. (Before Underwood on the festival’s main stage, the Osborne brothers offered her own tribute with a harmonious rendition of the Judds song “Why not me.”)
Not that Underwood was looking for something deeper than bombast in his music; rather, she was using the power of her voice, her muscular low end and especially her whiny upper register, to bring the bombast to life.
Considering how well she sang, you had to wonder if Rose had bitten off more than she could chew by agreeing to join Underwood for two GNR classics near the end of the concert. In fact, the 60-year-old frontman, who hasn’t been seen much since his band wrapped up a leg of its lengthy comeback tour last fall, nailed the sinuous melodies and breathy rhythms of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” and “Paradise”. City” with precision and just the right amount of villainous charm.
Clutching one of her trademark clown-nosed microphones, her slicked-back hair blowing in the desert wind, Rose snaked across the stage, a little slower than in the old days but with a smile that suggested she was enjoying herself. .
And why not? Despite all the differences in their ages and backgrounds, in Underwood she had found an A-list star who still believes in the show, and who still believes in it.
Reference-www.latimes.com